


Polaroids

by AugustApollo



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, Established Friendship, F/M, Platonic Romance, Riverdale, bughead - Freeform, platonic friendship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-12
Updated: 2017-02-19
Packaged: 2018-09-23 18:17:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9670421
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AugustApollo/pseuds/AugustApollo
Summary: Like life and all stories, Betty and Jughead's is an ongoing narrative made up of moments that define who they are.Snapshots of Jughead and Betty through the years.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! This is my first fic of Jughead and Betty. I was inspired by my curiosity about their friendship and back story based on the TV show, combined with the fact that Betty is the only girl Jughead has a sweet spot for, in his own way. I hope you like it!

I.

He is in his spot at Pop's, a few booths from the door, with two empty plates in front of him and his gaunt face softly illuminated by his laptop. He is far too preoccupied to have noticed her, or so she thinks, as she takes the seat across Veronica on the far side of the diner.

It feels strange, being in the same vicinity as one of her best friends without even acknowledging him. 

" _He didn't even see me._ " She justifies to herself. " _If he looks up, I promise I'll say hi._ "

He never does though. For the whole 3 hours that she sat there with Veronica, sipping her vanilla milkshake and exchanging life stories, not once did she see him lift his head. She knows this for a fact because she can see him directly over Veronica's shoulder, and although she will never admit it, she spent most of the evening mentally yelling at him to look at her. Black hair, black coat, grey plaid shirt, grey crown beanie, and moonlight skin - she catalogued everything, and decided that he looked better suited for some aged noir crime drama rather than a neon lit booth. Save for the pinkish glow from the lights on the window that added a shade of life to his cheekbones, he looked a little worse for wear. Then again, Jughead always looked like that.

 _Didn't he?_ She cards through the index files of memories in her mind, but to her dismay, she can barely remember the last time she saw him. Really saw him, that is, and not the shadow of his back in the classroom or his slouching figure walking through the halls. She can't even place the color of his eyes anymore. She usually pays attention to details like that.

Snap!

"Earth to Betty!" Veronica snapped her manicured fingers twice in front of her face. Betty flicked her attention back to the raven haired girl in front of her. "What are you looking at?" Concern and curiosity paints Veronica's eyes as she swiftly turns around to survey their surroundings, but finds that they are alone in the diner, except for the dark form of the infamous loner whose presence was barely even felt.

"Nothing. I was just thinking of..." Betty grapples for some excuse in her mind. "cheerleading!" At that Veronica's eyes widen a fraction.

"Yeah, I'm really tired and I don't even know if I want to continue it. I mean, it's not gonna get me a college scholarship, so is there still a point to it?" She sticks to her story, and it is enough for Veronica to launch into full on supportive mode, gently reminding her of the many perks they have because of the sport - gal pals, knowledge of the inner workings of their school, the right to ogle at jocks. Betty is grateful for the distraction, and lets her do most of the talking while she tries her best to not feel guilty about the boy over her shoulder.

Another half an hour goes by when he gets up to leave. Veronica was in the middle of animatedly explaining her worst date ever (not counting Chuck because that's a nightmare on another level) and Betty has managed to pay attention to this one. She barely registered that he took a pause to exchange words with Pops, and didn't notice him pass something over the counter. She didn't notice the drizzle that was blurring the outside world from the diner windows. She only felt a sting of  momentary panic when she heard the door bell ring, signaling his departure, and quickly swallowed the bitter sadness that took hold of her.

Before long, what started out as a gentle shower became an outright downpour. 

"This is ridiculous. I swear, someone needs to sue the weatherman because he never gets this right." Veronica said, pulling out a small umbrella from her purse. A realization hits Betty: she's wearing a thin white button down, and has no umbrella.

"Oh god, I'm going to get so soaked!" She whimpers quietly, pouting because she will most likely ruin a perfectly good blouse in this weather.

"We can share." Veronica offers.

"That's sweet, V, but that tiny thing looks like it's barely big enough to cover your pearls and those Jimmy Choos." Betty laughs sadly as they make their way to the door. "God, I really don't want to have to call my mom to come get me. She will throw a fit if she finds out I'm with you." A pregnant pause, and Betty can't decide  if it's because of the awkward rain situation or because of the touchy subject of her mom.

"Here." Pops pulls a dark coat from under the counter. "Cover yourself with this and run as fast as you can."

"That's sweet, Pops, but it's fine. I'll be okay." Betty says, but the crash of thunder that follows her begs to differ. She grins meekly, and takes the coat. "I'll give this back as soon as it's washed and cleaned." Pops just gives her a knowing smile, one that she returns with confusion, and resumes cleaning his glasses. 

B and V step out of the diner, and Veronica opens her umbrella while Betty unfolds the black outerwear. As she slips it on, she catches  the scent of the fabric. It knocks the wind out of her lungs and her fingers freeze over the top buttons. For a moment, she remembers a long ago conversation about "You don't have an umbrella" with a humorously condescending "I have a coat" reply.

"You okay, B?" Veronica was waving a hand in front of her face. "If you're going to keep spacing out on me, I'll either think I'm boring, which is obviously not the case, or you're super distracted, which means you need to spill."

A smile tugs at the corners of Betty's lips, and she slowly turns to Veronica. "I've really never been better."

She puts the coat over her head like a tent, and after exchanging farewells with her friend, she runs the whole way home. The rain still got on her face and her clothes, but at least she wasn't soaked with a risk of illness. She quickly changes into dry clothes before placing the garment into the washer. She reads and rereads that tag with directions on how to properly wash it, because Betty is good with details like that. 

Well, most of the time anyway. Because she didn't notice that Jughead had already spotted her blonde ponytail walking up to the diner, way before she spotted him in his booth. And she didn't notice that he was barely typing because he could feel her eyes on him. And she didn't notice that he left the diner with only his grey plaid shirt on his back.

She paces, trying to decide if she should message him about it. In the end, she goes with a plain "Thank you for knowing". She only gets a simple "You're welcome" the following day. When she returns to the diner the following evening, he is alone again in his booth. It's an hour till closing time, and the place is deserted. She sits across him and slides the clean coat over the table. He glances at it, then to her, giving her a smirk before resuming his work on his laptop. They sit in silence until the diner closes and he walks her home. She remembers the sound of his voice and the warmth that radiants from him, even when he tries to seem cold. She remembers that his eyes are the color of a stormy ocean.


	2. Choosing Sides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When they were thirteen, Jughead learns that there are limits to every friendships, and sides to every argument. And a fight with Archie is one he will never win.

Everyone always takes Archie's side. He's always had this good boy charm that makes you like him at the very least, and more often than not, trust every word he says. He's rarely been exceptional, but if anyone ever won an award for sheer likeability, it would be Archie Andrews, hands down. 

This is a fact that Jughead has always known, but he's never had to be on the other side of this fence. 

It's two weeks into summer vacation, and the two boys are already running out of things to do. At thirteen, there's only so much they could do in their small town. They didn't want to spend all their money so soon into their vacation, so the arcade was definitely out of the question. They had run out of video games, and there weren't any movies worth rewatching. Betty called a few hours earlier, saying that she had some errands to run with Polly and could probably come by around 4pm. Jughead glanced at the small clock on his bedside table - it was half past 3 in the afternoon. Betty would be here soon. 

Jughead is on his bed, already more than halfway through the new book he had started reading this morning. He is also more than halfway through his third burger for the day (thankfully, his mom didn't know that). Archie was on the floor, by the foot of the bed, awkwardly strumming some chords on a secondhand guitar. Most of the notes sounded off, like squeaky metallic scrapes, because he wasn't pressing down on the strings hard enough, but Jughead didn't say anything of it. 

Most of the afternoon had been spent like this, relatively peaceful, save for some off-key chords on a beat up guitar. Jughead didn't mind, honestly, because he could see how invested Archie was in music. For a relatively mediocre person, Archie was really striving to teach himself how to play the guitar, and Jughead wasn't about to be the one to take it away from him. 

But good god, when that boy started singing, Jughead wanted to club him over the head. 

It's not that Archie was a bad singer (but that's not to say he was an excellent one either). But in addition to the off-key guitar playing and the thrilling climax of the book he was reading, Jughead really couldn't take much more. He tried to forge on with his reading in silence, but each time Archie's fingers would slip or his throat would catch, Jughead would shut his eyes. Record player scratch. Nails on a chalkboard. Pots and pans crashing to the ground. An rocket ship exploding into a million pieces. That's the noise in his head, all crescendoing into absolute anarchy.

"Stop!" Okay, maybe Jughead had said this a little too harshly that he had originally intended. But the buzzing in his ears had kept him from calculating his voice well enough. Archie put his palm over the fretboard to silence the guitar, and whipped his head around.  
Jughead's not too sure what his face looked like in that moment, but it must not have been too good because Archie's face morphed from confusion to insult. 

"Yeah, okay." Archie said bitterly, moving to put the guitar back in its case. 

"C'mon, man. That's not what I- you don't have to do that." Jughead exasperated, putting his book down and watching Archie stomp across his room. 

"Nah, it's okay." Archie said bitterly. He was never very good at being passive-aggressive.

"Everything about you right now points to _not okay_." Jughead bit back. Archie scoffed and lifted his arms open. 

"Well, what do you want me to do, Jug? You know I've been trying to learn-"

"I know that, but why do you have to be so upset right now? It's my room. I can do what I-"

"Oh, so that's how it is then." Archie grabbed his guitar, threw the door open, and stomped out before Jughead could wrap his head around how fast the situation escalated. 

It was only much later on that Jughead realized this argument had less to do with his lack of appreciation for Archie's music, and more to do with issues behind closed doors at home. But that another story.

Jughead huffed and puffed and counted to 10 in his head before going over to his bedroom window. It overlooks the front yard, where he could see Archie stomping down the walk and sharply turn the corner onto the street. Betty came into view, blonde ponytail swinging enthusiastically behind her, just a few meters away from his house. 

He couldn't hear what they were saying, but the concern on Betty's face was evident a mile away. She tugs at Archie's sleeve in an effort to get him back into the house, but he gently shrugs her away and seems to lamely gesture about going home. She looks between Archie and the house, and back again. There's a small wrinkle between her brows that tells him she's deep in thought. Jughead finds himself pleading in his mind that she will still come over. But as Archie begins marching away again, she is broken from her reverie and obligingly follows him.

Jughead doesn't speak to Archie or Betty for the following week. Or rather, they didn't speak to him - no phone call, no visits. It's 8 days later, when Jughead coincidentally runs into Betty at a corner store to run some errands. She's wearing a pink cardigan, but manages to look threatening as she corners him in the Cereal aisle. 

"Please just apologize to him, Juggie." At her request, Jughead's heart sinks. He glares down at her, and tries hard not to look as offended as he feels.

"Why should I be the one to apologize?" He retorted, immediately feeling defensive. Yup, not exactly the tone he had intended.

"Well, you told him to stop-"

"And I had every right to. It's my room. I wanted peace. Why should I be the one to adjust?"

"You know he's been working at it. You can be more supportive." She sighs, begging him with her big blue eyes. He gives her a mighty eye roll and tries not to sound like a pathetic whiny child.

"I am supportive. I bought him a pack of guitar picks, and sent him those tutorial videos." Jughead crosses his arms over his chest and looks away from her.

"This is honestly such a stupid thing to fight over. Just apologize." She exasperated, gesturing to him with her hand, which was preoccupied with a shopping basket.

"Why can't he be the one to apologize to me?" He counters. She looks at him like he's a petulant toddler.

"Juggie, just-" She starts to say, but he cuts her off.

"And where have you been? _We_ didn't fight last week." He knows he sounds pathetic, but Jughead didn't care.

"What do you mean?" Betty blinks at him once, twice, thrice. She can be such a comical character.

Jughead feels the acid in his tongue, poised to spit his bitter words at her. He wants to point out the side she choice, the line she drew. He wants her to hear the silence and feel the sting that comes with being walked away from.

But he doesn't. 

Because she didn't do anything wrong and she's trying to help, trying to get him to do the right thing.

He bites his tongue. With a sigh, he moves to walk away, but not fast enough, so she knows he's not really walking away from her. She meets his pace and walks with him quietly.

Once they've both checked their items out, Jughead hesitantly tries to invite her over to his house to hang out. She blushes a deep red, and declines; Archie wants to ride their bikes to the river in the afternoon. Jughead couldn't keep his face from falling, and he must not have been good at hiding it because she quickly offers him to join them.

"Maybe use that time to say sorry." She not so subtly tries again.

He doesn't say anything as he walks her home. And for all his stubbornness, he doesn't show up that afternoon either.

Everyone always takes Archie's side. Including Betty Cooper.

That's why, years later, it doesn't come as a surprise to Jughead that he hears close to nothing from Betty when he and Archie have a falling out during the summer.

It doesn't surprise him to be cut off, but neither Archie not Betty will ever admit to it. He's sure they don't even notice. To Betty, Archie's side is the only side. Choosing otherwise, or choosing Jughead in this case, isn't even an option. So he learned to not take offense to it. To walk alone free and enjoy it. And to forgive his friends when they return.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this Snapshot. Let me know if you have a specific scenario you want to explore. I can try to add it to this story, and maybe make a new one out of it!


End file.
